I haven’t posted in a while, but I am still alive! Just to remind myself that I should get out and train some, here is another shot from Engadin Skimarathon, around the start, where we’ll skate over frozen lakes.

Also in the queue: two 2011 race reports (…), one of which is NYC Marathon, 2011 review, 2012 plans… soon, soon.

(via Big Shots for March 18, 2010 - Big Shots - Boston.com)

I forgot how much it sucks to run with glasses. Now I remember.

I forgot how much fun it is to run with my Nike Frees. Now I remember.

My new best friends until March!

Because it’s cheaper to sign up before 2012. Now I should probably start some swim training!

Looks like the race was a bit tougher some time ago! There’s still a famous downhill passage, “Stazerwald”, where the not-so-adept wipe out in masses. But nowadays, the trees are padded and the place is called “mattress hill”, or so I hear.

Two days ago, I bought my own cross-country skiing equipment (Fischer all the way except the poles, but Petter Northug and Dario Cologna also have Fischer skis and Swix poles*, so…) and today I tried it all out for the first time. I liked it enough to immediately sign up for Engadin Skimarathon (see video), the biggest cross country skiing race in the country (about 12’000 participants).

I’m already excited! Now for some training.

*They probably have the $590 pole though.

Went XC ski stuff shopping today (in the popular “Benjamin gets gifts for himself” series). Had a hard time resisting this pole at a very inviting $590.-

Not really. But good to see you can spend more on the poles than on quite good skis!

Garmin has finally fixed the super annoying bug on Garmin Connect where (in the “reports” tab) workouts would show up only under, e.g., “Street Running”, but not under “Running”, which logically is a superset of “Street Running”. Thanks! Now I can bury my plans to start a super sophisticated Excel sheet to keep track of that stuff.

As always, they have managed not to tell anybody.

Maiden run! Nine kilometres of slush, dark and uphill, it seemed. Obviously, my NYC shape is long, long gone.

Cyclocross was huge in Switzerland. This is about a race in Wetzikon in 1972, with several World Champions competing. What’s not to love! The oh so enthusiastic voice of the speaker, mutton chops, biker hats when they weren’t retro yet…